


apartment above a karaoke bar

by lithopsornot



Category: Harley Quinn (Cartoon 2019)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-14
Updated: 2020-06-14
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:15:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24724408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lithopsornot/pseuds/lithopsornot
Summary: for the first time in a very long time, harley didn’t feel the word hammering against her chest. for the first time in a very long time, ‘yes’ didn’t feel bitter to say.
Relationships: Harley Quinn/Poison Ivy, Pamela Isley/Harleen Quinzel
Comments: 1
Kudos: 60





	apartment above a karaoke bar

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sapphicwisteria](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphicwisteria/gifts).



harley’s apartment is a small one bedroom that’s tucked comfortably above a karaoke bar. the front door doesn’t lock properly so most nights harley sleeps with a chair propped up against the doorknob. the windows aren’t any better, the latch being broken from the previous tenant’s break-in incident, but harley doesn’t mind. she’s not worried about intruders, she has a bat. and anyhow, she likes the sound of cars passing and the noises the cats make having their late night fights. most of all, she likes the breeze on the summer nights when her AC’s down. 

harley’s had the place from even before she had the joker, or the joker had her, whatever it was, whatever people saw it as. and though the heater only works every other december and the kitchen only ever has off-brand cereal and a carton of almost expired milk, it’s her place. all those years ago, she had sat in front of a nice old vietnamese lady and signed the lease. she paid the rent on time every month, even when she rarely spent her nights there. her place. 

harley’s apartment is 10 minute walk away from ivy’s. a car ride so short, it wouldn’t be worth the gas. it’s not fate or anything, harley tells herself. vigilantism, the heroic or criminal kind, doesn’t exactly pay well, or sometimes at all. so, it makes sense for her and ivy to live in the same busted neighbourhood. what doesn’t make sense is the way ivy’s place looks like it belongs somewhere else entirely. with harley, what you see is what you get, the inside of an apartment on a street with shit on the sidewalks is exactly what you’d expect it to be. and even though harley will never admit it, walking into ivy’s apartment the first time, watching as the door locked behind her, hearing it click shut, seeing the fruit on the kitchen counter, she felt something akin to relief, something more than relief. something like hope. something like ‘thank fuck you’re more than what i see,” in her chest. 

harley’s never liked not sleeping at her own place but when ivy asked her to spend the night that first visit, she couldn’t bring herself to say no. for the first time in a very long time, harley didn’t feel the word hammering against her chest. for the first time in a very long time, ‘yes’ didn’t feel bitter to say. it tasted sweet almost. and it still does so many months later, with harley counting the nights she’s spent at her own apartment on one hand as she lets the other rest on ivy’s. 

still, sweet things can be sticky. like taffy or swishers. sweet like ivy’s ‘extra’ toothbrush becoming ‘harley’s toothbrush’ or friday being harley-chooses-what-to-order-in day. sticky like harley’s lease renewal coming up or ivy’s wedding only two weeks away. messy in the way they never talk about how harley’s not the best at doing dishes or when ivy said she can’t trust her with her heart. 

they don’t talk about it but that doesn’t mean harley doesn’t think about it. endlessly. relentlessly

it’s the last thing she carries with her as she falls asleep beside ivy. in her dreams, she feels ivy’s hand on her cheek as she takes the words back— no, as she never says them to begin with. in the morning, she tosses the words into her coffee like she would sugar cubes, watches them melt. she looks at ivy in the afternoon and wants to explode at the unfairness of it all. 

but she doesn’t. she doesn't know how to ask someone to believe they are an exception. she thinks asking at all would be me asking too much. so, harley decides to wait. 

in two weeks, there could be a wedding, a lease renewal, or a chance. she has no way of knowing what will happen, just that she wants to drag the sweetness out for as long as possible, wants it to get stuck in both their throats like a gummy.

sweet like the kiss they shared, sticky in the way harley hopes it wasn’t the last.

**Author's Note:**

> this was actually supposed to be a long story about how harley gets a cat with commitment issues getting complicated and resolved and ... a bunch of nice emotional dialogue. but! im just not a proper writer so i can't do those things rip. hope u enjoyed anyway


End file.
